Welcome all to the Daily Dose of Guilds of Ravnica and today I’m focusing on one guild and one guild only, Dimir. Dimir might live in the shadows but the cards I’ll talk about today won’t be in the shadows for very long. These cards will be front and centre and in some Standard decks come October. When it comes to Magic, everyone has their own playstyle and color combinations that they like to play with. For myself, green/white has been a favorite combination as well as Grixis, but never Dimir. These set of cards I’m previewing today just might lean me in the direction of starting to play with Dimir cards.
Before I start talking about two powerful new Dimir creatures I want to talk about a removal spell that targets your hand, graveyard and library. Here is Unmoored Ego.
In the past two years, two of the cards that I often brought out of the sideboard in Standard were Dispossess and Lost Legacy. One was used against artifacts and the other one for everything else. The trouble is figuring out the meta game to know which one you wanted in your sideboard. That problem is solved thanks to Unmoored Ego. I believe that always having a card like this in the format is crucial in stopping decks that are extremely focused around one card in their deck winning the game. It’s great that you can exile them as well, so it doesn’t feed four cards into your opponents’ graveyard. The fact that it is two colors to cast will mean that less decks are able to cast it out of their sideboard, but that’s fine for the Grixis player in me.
Next up is a creature that for me is a combination of two creatures I’ve played with before. Here is Thief of Sanity.
This card is what happens when you meld together Nightveil Specter and Gonti, Lord of Luxury. This creature has evasion in flying which will make it easier for you to deal damage to your opponent. Once you do that you will start to gain card advantage each turn it connects for damage. The fact that you get to search their top three cards every time means you will most likely get a quality card to cast every time. The great part about this card is that even if Thief of Sanity dies, you can cast that exiled card at any time for the rest of the game. You can just damage them a few times and just have those cards exiled waiting for the right moment to cast them. Not only do you get to cast these cards, but your opponent won’t be able to. The only concerning part about this ability is adding cards to your opponents’ graveyard. With so many mechanics centered around the graveyard in this set, it could be a concern.
How would you like to kill your opponent just by attacking them with one creature over and over? This next Dimir creature has the chance to do that. Here is Etrata, the Silencer.
This is currently my number one designed card in Guilds of Ravnica. It is also the first card I want to get foiled from the new set to play in Brawl. To start off you get a 3/5 creature that can’t be blocked, making it one of the larger creatures ever printed with this ability. Its main ability is what intrigues me. Every time that you deal damage with Etrata, the Silencer you get to exile one of your opponents’ creatures. Not until end of turn, but permanently. If you happen to do this three times during a game, you win! There is that slight annoyance of having to shuffle it back into your library every time you deal damage, but there are ways to get around that. You can start off by playing four copies of this in your deck. It’s not the worst idea, since it acts as a removal spell the turn after you cast it. If you end up drawing it three times during the game and deal damage with it three times, you win. As I mentioned I love the design of this card and time will tell if it is as powerful as it looks. With five toughness it will be tough to kill, so hopefully this will mean you are able to get in some damage with it. I can also see holding back attacking until your opponent gets a threat on the battlefield that is worthy enough to exile with its ability.
Are you excited for Dimir yet? If not, please tell me why since these cards are bonkers. Each day I think I know which guild I want to play at my local prerelease, but cards like these get previewed and my decision becomes a little bit harder. Thanks again for reading the Daily Dose of Guilds of Ravnica. Join me again tomorrow as we look at some of the last cards spoiled from the new set.
